


Regrets

by JodieReedus22



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 09:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17864675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JodieReedus22/pseuds/JodieReedus22
Summary: Daryl says something to the reader that he regrets, that ends up putting her in danger.





	Regrets

The group had been run ragged, everything seemed to go wrong every time there was a chance. 

First the CDC was a bust. The, the RV had broken down on the road to Fort Benning, leaving everyone in a precarious position. And this time was no exception, this was the most dangerous position you  
had ever been in.

When the herd finally filtered through the maze of cars, you thought you were all safe, that was until Sophia ran into the woods, Rick in tow, only for him to come back with nothing.

It was a dark day for everyone, losing someone always was, but Sophia, she was just a kid, it weighed heavy on everyone’s heart.

To top of that, what seemed like the endless list of misfortunes, you had gotten word that Carl had been shot and was residing on a farm not too far by. 

Not wanting to give up the search quite yet, you stayed behind with a few of your group members to continue the search.

You mostly went out with Daryl, the two of you seemed to have this infallible connection when you were out there. You trusted one another, you didn’t know how that trust came about, but somehow it did, and you made a good pair. 

After a day or so of fruitless searching, you all decided it was best to re-join the rest of your group at the farm, get a handle on things, and start again properly.

With multiple people pulled out of the search – Rick on doctors’ orders, Shane because of his ankle – it was up to you and Daryl to find this little girl.

Hours upon hours of looking, no clues to speak of and losing light you decided to call it a night.

It was a quiet and solemn walk back to the farm with a disgruntled Daryl, you knew he meant well, you had probably spent more time with him than the others, you saw a side to him he probably didn’t mean to show to you, but you saw it. 

He wore his heart on his sleeve, and he felt the loss of this little girl strongly, and you wanted to find her, not necessarily for yourself, maybe not even for Sophia or Carol. But for him.

He needed this, you weren’t sure why, whether because it’s a little girl, maybe because he felt protective, maybe it was for himself, to feel some self-worth, but whatever the reason, you were gonna be  
there for him.

Exiting out of the woods, with just a field in between you and the farm, you made your way towards your little camp, walking slightly behind Daryl as he took point. 

You decided you wanted to say something, anything to let Daryl know you were on his side, so you picked up your pace a little to walk side by side.

You walked in silence for a little bit, contemplating what you were gonna say.

“We’ll find her,” you spoke up as Daryl turned his head towards you in surprise at your words.

“We will,” you said sterner when you saw him look at you.

Daryl didn’t respond in words but with a nod, that was enough for you, you knew Daryl was a man of very few words, to him actions counted more than words.

Once returned to your small campsite you bid Daryl good night and headed to your tent. 

Removing your shoes and getting comfy, your eyes closed as soon as your head hit the pillow.

Waking up the sound of bustling in the camp and the smell of breakfast, you arose, to find you were the last one up.

Saying a few good mornings to people you quickly got to your duties and had a little breakfast.

Looking around camp you saw that Daryl was nowhere to be seen. 

“Hey,” you said leaning over to T-Dog. “Have you seen Daryl anywhere?” you asked.

“Nope, he must’ve got up early to look for Sophia,” T-Dog told you.

“Okay,” you said, slightly confused.

You had always gone out with Daryl, maybe it’s because you overslept, you didn’t know, all you knew was you were going to go out there and find him, you wanted to help. 

By the time you had gotten all your chores done that was required, it was getting later into the afternoon, slightly worried about Daryl being out there for so long on his own you decided to get your stuff together. 

A commotion outside your tent drew you from packing, upon exiting you saw a few people running in the same direction, grabbing your knives you followed them into the field.

Running far behind them you heard a gunshot ring out and the supposed walker go down. When rick started shouting you realised that something wasn’t right, and your heart began to sink and Rick’s desperate tone.

Picking up as much pace as you could, arriving to see Rick and Shane pull up what you thought would be a walker, only turned out to be Daryl, covered in blood, a wound on his side and now on his head, you couldn’t help but give off a worried look.

“He’ll be okay, I promise,” Rick stopped just in front of you, reassuring you when he saw the look on your face.

Not being able to respond you nodded and followed them up into the house where Hershel could take care of him. 

Once Hershel had finished patching him up he told everyone that Daryl needed rest, so you pulled yourself away from the door, in which you had been standing at ever since they brought him up, and headed downstairs to get some food.

Once you finished yours you decided to take some up for Daryl, he needed to get his strength back up and food was a good start.

You gently knocked on the door, and slowly made your way into his room.

Coming around the door, you saw Daryl quickly cover up, it hurt you to see him like this, a bandage on his side, one of his head, looking tired and defeated.

“I brought you some food,” you said gently, not wanting to make too much noise.

Daryl said nothing only responded with a grunt.

You placed the food down on the bedside table.

“You need to eat Daryl, please,” you pleaded, as Daryl looked up he saw the look in your eyes, he picked up the plate and started to eat, you didn’t know if it was because he knew you cared, or to shut you up, you didn’t care as long as he had something to eat.

You turned away from him and started making your way to the door, with one hand on it ready to close it you spoke up.

“You shouldn’t have gone out there alone, you should have waited for me, or better yet woken me up,” you said with a sad tinge to your voice.

All you could think about was if you were there you could have helped, and he wouldn’t have gotten so hurt.

“Don’t need no babysitter,” Daryl grunted at you.

You looked at him, a sad look in your eyes, you thought he was different with you, that’s what it always seemed like, maybe you were wrong.

Not wanted to get into an argument, for Daryl’s sake, he needed his strength, you decided not to say something smart.

“Fine,” was all you said as you closed the door behind you and made your way back to your tent. 

 

A couple days had passed since Daryl’s accident and his comment to you, you hadn’t spoken to each other since.

You didn’t know if you were pissed at his comment or just giving him some space, sometimes that’s what Daryl needed, all you knew was - you missed him.

Even if you never really held a proper conversation, you missed his presence.

You woke up at your usual time the next morning only to find, yet again, that Daryl wasn’t around, knowing where he went you wasted no time in going after him this time.

You packed your things and headed towards the woods.

You weren’t a tracker, whatever skills you had – which were limited at the best of times - you had learnt from Daryl. 

If ever there was a time to put them in good use, this was it.

Following a trail, you believed was Daryl’s you made your way farther into the trees, looking back, hoping you could find your way out of here if you needed to.

You carried on following a trail, you heard rustling in the trees ahead of you.

It was getting denser the farther in you went, so you got out your knife, getting prepared for whatever it was and made your way closer to the noise.

Stalking slowly through the undergrowth, staying as silent as possible you got a fright when you suddenly had a crossbow pointing at your face.

“Damn it (Y/N), I could’a killed ya,” Daryl shouted.

“Well it’s a good thing you ain’t trigger-happy then isn’t it?” you remarked.

“Why ya here?” Daryl asked begrudgingly. 

“Why do you think? You’re injured Daryl, you shouldn’t have come out here all this way without back up, you heard what Rick said,” you said following Daryl as his continued his search.

“I told ya, I don’t need no babysitter, and I don’t have to do everything Rick says, I do what I want,” Daryl argued, not even looking back to talk to you.

“I just want to help you that’s all,” you pleaded with him.

Without warned Daryl turned on his heel and with large strides made his way towards you with anger in his eyes.

“I don’t need ya help, I don’t need anyone’s help, I’m better on my own, now why don’t you just leave me the hell alone and go back, I don’t want you here,” Daryl shouted, getting into your face.

You knew deep down that Daryl would never hurt you, but you couldn’t deny that in that moment you were scared of him.

Keeping contact with his anger filled eyes, you took a step back. With tears burning the back of your eyes you refused to let Daryl see he got the better of you and you turned on your heel without saying a  
word and headed back the way you came.

Walking clumsily back through the tree you hit every branch of your way back in frustration, with tears streaming down your cheeks, you didn’t know if there were from anger or from sadness, sadness that  
Daryl could speak to you like that, after everything you had been through, the connection you thought you had, maybe you dreamed it all up.

With all those thoughts swimming through your mind, you were paying no attention to your surrounding area, by the time you heard the noises it was too late.

A walker had come out of nowhere and grabbed you by your hair, making you lose balance and fall straight onto your back, knocking the wind out of you.

Trying to catch your breath you kicked the walker as much as you could whilst trying to shuffle yourself backwards to get more space from the walker so you could get back onto your feet and have an advantage.

But for whatever reason this walker seemed to get the better of you, with the walker grabbing your feet and pulling you towards its chomping jaws, you let out a desperate scream as you tried to reach for your knife.

Struggling to escape from the walker’s grip, and your knife seemingly impossible to grasp at, you continued screaming, knowing that this was it, in the middle of nowhere with no one around to save you, this was how you were going to die. 

Time seemed to slow down as you saw your fate before your eyes, saw what you were destined to become, there was no getting out of this situation, no miracle that was going to intervene.

In that moment you realised who you were, you were a fighter, you had survived this world so far, and you weren’t gonna let yourself go out this way.

With whatever strength you could muster you began fighting back as hard as you could, screaming yourself into a fight mode.

Tears streaming down your face, your eyes blurred and your breathing getting less manageable by the second, you knew you needed to do this now.

But before you could give yourself that last push the walker went limp and an arrow protruding from its head. 

Your brain couldn’t keep up with everything that happened in what all seemed in an instant, when a pair of hands grabbed you again.

You tried with everything you had to fight back, but you were losing strength every time you moved your body.

With blurry vision and what clearly was a panic attack setting in, you managed to make out the thing grabbing you was talking to you.

You felt two hands gently placed on either of your cheeks. When your vision slightly started to return you started to make out the figure in front of you. 

It was Daryl.

You could see his lips moving, but you couldn’t hear anything coming out of them, which panicked you more.

With Daryl leaning in even closer to your face you started to make out what he was saying.

“Breathe (Y/N), just breathe, your okay now, ya hear me, your safe, just breathe. Follow me okay!” Daryl said as loudly as he could making sure you could hear him, at the same time sounding gentle and caring.

You couldn’t utter a word so instead - to show him you could hear him - you nodded.

Daryl started to slowly breathe in through his nose and out through his mouth, as he encouraged you to follow, you started to copy what he was doing.

Slowly your breathing was getting back to normal, your vision was returning, and you could hear Daryl more clearly.

“You okay?” Daryl asked, placing his hand back on your cheek as he leaned in.

“I’m fine, I’m good,” you said still a little breathless from the panic attack, checking your body for any sign of bites or scratches, much to your relief you found none.

Without a word Daryl pulled you into his chest and embraced you, you felt safe wrapped in his arms, breathing in his scent. You knew you were going to be alright now.

“I’m so sorry (Y/N), so so sorry,” Daryl said apologising as he pulled away so he could look at you. “It’s my fault, I should never have sent you away, you could’ve died because of me, I’m sorry,” Daryl said tears slowly making their way down his cheek, cutting lines into the dirt.

“Hey,” you said taking his face in your hands to make him look at you. “I’m here, I’m alive, and that’s because of you. You can’t blame yourself for everything, I know I don’t.” 

As Daryl looked you in the eyes another tear fell.

You wiped the tear away with your thumb.

“It’s okay,” you repeated.

Staring into each other’s eyes, you leaned in closer and placed a gentle kiss on his lips, as you pulled away you saw Daryl still gazing straight into your eyes, a small smile graced your lips as he stroked your cheek with his thumb.

Then out of nowhere, he used the hand already on your cheek to pull you in for another kiss, this time harder, more desperate, but still loving.

You both pulled away, slightly breathless, but this time from the kiss and not a panic attack.

You sat there together for a little while, making sense of what just happened.

Daryl then stood up, offering a hand for you to join him and you made your way back to the farm, hand in hand.


End file.
